Black History Month
CAMPUS
DIGEST
Vol. IV Edition 6
A Merced College News Magazine
Spring Forward President Taylor reflects on spring
cleaning, attending to old challenges, and preparing
for new initiatives. Page 2
Published by the Office of Institutional Advancement
Sustainable Merced College’s student government
presents proclamation to move District toward sustainable practices. Page 3
FEBRUARY 2015
Skating By Merced College’s President’s Circle purchases new skateboard racks for library and Student
Union Building. Page 6
Blossom Time
Photo by Walter Fox
With a short winter, many trees are beginning to bloom, including this beautiful example of an Evergreen Pear tree, located
between the Student Union and Music buildings. The tree (it’s scientic name is pyrus kawakamii) is native to Taiwan and
China and can reach 25 feet in height.
CAMPUS DIGEST
FEBRUARY 2015
An Early Spring and a Time to Renew Efforts
ASMC Challenges District to Move Toward a More Sustainable Campus
By Dr. Ron Taylor
Superintendent/President
Spring seems
to have come
early to our area.
After a spate of
rain and wind,
the last few days
have been sunny
and warm, and
the
daffodils
are out. Spring
brings
various
Dr. Taylor
impulses, familiar
to all of us: spring
cleaning, new beginnings, the sap running
strong.
I hope you are taking advantage of what
the college has to offer for celebrating important milestones, such as Black History
Month, Presidents’ Days, etc. Myself, in
addition to attending the wonderful performance of “Crowns” put on by Playhouse
Merced—a great celebration of AfricanAmerican heritage—I have sampled the
spring sports (basketball, softball, baseball)
and I’m gearing up for all the crab feeds
and lobster feeds and shrimp feeds being
held this month. (Alas I missed the annual
Day of Remembrance dinner for the Japanese American Citizens League at the end
of January. I know some of you managed to
attend; thank you for making a good showing for the College.)
Most of all, though, I have been spring
cleaning. For those of you who visit my office on occasion, you may see some subtle
differences—the result of hard labor: sorting, discarding, filing, making decisions.
Whether it happens at home or at work, I
see spring cleaning as many do, I suspect:
out with the old, in with the new, and good
riddance! In other words, it’s an exercise in
taking stock. Think of the parallels in the
life of the College: we are now engaged in
selecting new full-time faculty who will
start work in August, and faculty and staff
are now working on their annual program
reviews.
Speaking of dusting off the old and enPage 2
When in April the sweet showers fall
And pierce the drought of March to the root, and all
The veins are bathed in liquor of such power
As brings about the engendering of the flower…”
—Geoffrey Chaucer
circa 1400 A.D., trans. Nevill Coghill
gaging with the new, and taking stock: remember those goals in our Strategic Plan?
Well, we’ll be reporting on progress later
this spring, but for now I have a couple of
points for your consideration, and which
will surely occupy some of our time this
spring. First, there is Goal 5, “Promote a
Sustainable, Supportive, and Safe Learning Environment,” along with its subsidiary objectives 5.1 “Promote environmental
stewardship” and 5.4 “Improve campus life
for students” and other objectives aimed at
improving our campuses. This goal and its
objectives resonate strongly with the Sustainability Challenge which the Associated
Students of Merced College posed to the
District at last week’s meeting of the Board
of Trustees. I spoke about this challenge
back in November, but now ASMC has
finalized it and is asking the College as a
whole to respond. You will find the actual
document posted to the ASMC web page
and it’s being published here on page 3.
Please take a look, and if you have strong
feelings either in support or in opposition
to any part of it, please communicate your
feelings to your constituency leader/member of College Council. The Council will
be discussing the Sustainability Challenge
in March, and determining what we would
recommend to the Board.
Another goal in our Strategic Plan is
Goal 6, “Foster a culture of institutional effectiveness and excellence,” which addresses our accreditation as a College (along
with other goals in the plan). In particular,
Objective 6.3 says that we will “Ensure accreditation standards are met or exceeded.”
In order to meet the standards and keep
ourselves off sanction (not to mention improve the way we do business), we must
ensure that we are assessing student learning and making use of the assessments to
adjust and improve. This week, I will speak
about this need in the Academic Senate,
and I am asking Vice President Gilliland
to lead a renewed effort to see that we are
closing the loop of assessing, analyzing, and
planning/adjusting. Watch for more on this
next month and beyond, as I continue with
my spring cleaning, fulfilling those everoptimistic New Year’s resolutions!
CAMPUS DIGEST
FEBRUARY 2015
ASMC Issues Sustainability Challenge to District
Whereas, the Associated Students of Merced College Student Council has authorized and issued the following proclamation:
We seek to promote the welfare and academic success of the
student body and the Merced College Campus community in
general;
We seek to develop Merced College into a prosperous institution fit for the twenty-first century;
We acknowledge the value of higher education;
We seek to protect and preserve Merced College for the
benefit of current and future students;
We wish to offer the same opportunities, if not better opportunities afforded to us, to future generations;
We acknowledge the correlation between student health
and academic success;
We acknowledge the correlation between the campus environment and student success;
We acknowledge the emerging trends of sustainability, selfreliance, and automation;
We acknowledge that Merced College operates using unsustainable practices;
We believe Merced College should be at the cutting edge
of teaching methodologies, as well as new technologies, leading
the way into the future;
We believe that Merced College can become sustainable
and set the example for other community colleges in the state
and throughout the country;
We believe that a sustainable Merced College campus will
be of benefit to not only current and future students, but to
all members of the Merced College community, as well as the
entire Merced community;
We believe that through sustainable practices and innova-
tive ideas, solutions to Merced College’s fiscal and other dilemmas, such as limited resources, limited space, and limited access
to cutting edge educational materials, can be found;
We believe it is the obligation of not only our generation,
but of those who have come before us, to help create a better
world for those who come after us;
Therefore, the Associated Students of Merced College
hereby proclaim the issuance of a sustainability challenge to
the Merced College Board of Trustees, to the Merced College Administration, to the Merced College Faculty, Staff and
Students, and to the Merced College Community.
The aforementioned Sustainability Challenge to Merced
College includes but is not limited to:
To make Merced College as sustainable as possible in all
regards.
To become as close to zero waste and zero pollution as
possible.
To promote and implement sustainable practices for the
resources of water, land, energy, materials and waste throughout Merced College, via the passage and implementation of
appropriate board policies and administrative policies.
To encourage the inclusion of sustainability and campus
improvement projects within course curriculum and Student
Learning Outcomes.
To leave Merced College at better place than when we
found it.
To build the foundation for a sustainable Merced.
It is the wish of the Associated Students of Merced College
that the Board of Trustees not only acknowledges this formal
proclamation and challenge, but also either officially accepts
or declines this challenge at the Board of Trustees meeting on
March 10th, 2015.
Plans Advancing to Implement Student Equity Plan
By Chris Vitelli
Vice President of Student Services
As you are probably well aware, we have
been working diligently to develop and
produce a meaningful Three-Year Student
Equity Plan for Merced College. Yes, it’s a
state mandate, but more importantly, it’s a
vital component to access and success for
our diverse student population. We submitted our comprehensive plan in mid-December and are now in the early implementation phase. You can review a complete
copy of the comprehensive plan on the
portal under the Student Services page by
going to the Student Success and Support
Program Advisory Committee link.
The Merced College Student Equity
Plan represents collaborative efforts of
students, staff, faculty, managers, and administrators. Members of the Merced College Student Equity Committee and the
Office of Grants & Institutional Research
(OGIR) worked together to educate, collaborate, research, discover, and plan the
following:
Educate: Throughout the past 12
months, the campus engaged in numerous presentations and forums to discuss the
purpose and definition of student equity
and the impact of meaningful equity plans
on access and success for all students.
Collaborate: The newly formed Merced College Student Equity Committee is
composed of a cross-section of all constituencies on campus. This committee worked
diligently to respond to the disproportionate impacts creating barriers for our students.
Research: The Office of Grants & Institutional Research (OGIR) provided the
institutional research necessary to identify
the disproportionate impacts for the target
groups identified by the Student Equity
Committee.
Discover: As an integral part of the
process, the Student Equity Committee
See Equity, page 8.
Page 3
CAMPUS DIGEST
FEBRUARY 2015
There’s a New Sheriff in Town
Photo by Robin Shepard
Merced County Sheriff’s Deputy Vince Gallagher (center) assumed command of the Merced College Security Department
on January 26. Chief Gallagher was first sworn in as a county deputy sheriff on April 29, 1991. He and his wife have seven
children and a 5-month old grandson. Joining their new chief is (left to right) Officer Tim Martin, Assistant and Dispatcher
Jamie Moua, Security Officer Elizabeth Deeming, and Officer John Rhoades.
Notice for Campus Forum
A campuswide forum will be held on April 1 at noon in the Margaret M. Randolph
Board Room.
Page 4
The topics of discussion are enrollment and issues surrounding the budget. Stay tuned
for more information to come.
CAMPUS DIGEST
FEBRUARY 2015
Capital Planning
Notebook
Benhissen Painting Selected for Show
By Sheila Flores
Manager, Capital Planning & Events
Proposition 39: Clean Energy Jobs Act
Project Update
Proposition 39 provides funding to
Merced Community College District on
an annual basis for the five years, for energy
efficient projects.
Year-one funding in the amount of
$388,236 provided new pool pumps and
virtual desktop units for the Merced Campus. The Los Banos Campus was updated
with new energy efficient lighting, window
film, water heater, and virtual desktop units.
Year-two funding has been approved in
the amount of $269,370, which will pay for
35 new single-zone gas package units and
electric heat pumps for buildings on the
Merced Campus. The bid for this project is
on the streets with a bid opening scheduled
for March 12, 2015.
The year-three allocation of $215,496
will be used to replace additional singlezone gas package units and electric heat
pumps, as well as window tinting and other
miscellaneous projects.
We will have two more funding years
so if you have any suggestions for energy
savings projects, please feel free to contact
Sheila Flores, [email protected].
New Pool Cover
Utilizing 2014-15 state scheduled
maintenance funds, a new pool cover has
been purchased, which includes T-Star
Sunguard reels and remote controls. We are
happy to provide this enhancement to reduce our overall energy costs. The unit has
been ordered and should be operational by
the middle of March.
Scheduled Maintenance Projects
Merced Community College District
was fortunate to receive scheduled maintenance funds for 2013-14 and 2014-15.
You may soon see maintenance activities
District-wide which include the following
projects: Replacement of roofing, HVAC
Page 5
See Notebook, page 8.
Art Professor Louisa Benhissen’s oil on canvas Americana, “a still life about
American culture from a foreigner’s perspective,” was a selection for the
2015 Crocker-Kingsley Art Competition. The prestigious, biennial 87-year-old
juried exhibition featured 75 works and six prize-winners selected from 1,300
California entries. The Crocker-Kingsley exhibition became juried in 1940, a
tradition that continues to the present day.
Mark Your Calendar for ‘Cram Night’
The Learning Resources Center is again hosting an event to support student learning
and student success.
Mark your calendars for the 2015 Spring Semester’s Cram Night, which is scheduled
for May 14 from 8:30 to 11 p.m.
CAMPUS DIGEST
FEBRUARY 2015
Students Get
New Racks
to Store
Skateboards
Thanks to the special work
of reference librarian Dee
Near, a request to President’s
Circle to fund two skateboard
racks for students was
recently approved. One rack
will be installed in front of
the Library and the other will
be installed in front of the
Student Union Building. The
students will now be able
to lock their skateboards up
before going to class. Special
thanks to President’s Circle
for providing the funds to
purchase these units.
Employee Health Screenings Scheduled
Free health screenings will be held
this year on March 11, 10 am-4 pm at
the Merced Campus in the Staff Dining
Room. Health Services is collaborating
with MCOE on health screenings for Los
Banos Campus employees. If you have any
questions/concerns, please call the Human
Resources office at Ext. 6550.
Staff can make an appointment for a
health screening by going to http://www.
sischealth.com. To schedule your appointment at the Merced location, please select: Group/District: Merced Community
College District; Clinic Location: Merced
College Staff Dining Room.
When you show up for your appointPage 6
ment and get screened, you will receive a
$30 award card.
The screening includes a cholesterol
test, blood pressure evaluation, glucose
test for diabetes, as well as other valuable
tests and measurements. The blood testing will only require a simple finger stick
to get a small drop. Your individual results
are protected by HIPAA privacy laws and
the District will have absolutely no access
to any of them. The results are just for you,
to arm yourself with the knowledge you
need to maintain and improve your health.
Understanding your numbers and taking
action to improve them will help you live
longer and enjoy a better quality of life.
MC’s Undergraduate
Research Week
Undergraduate Resarch Week for 2015
will be observed at Merced College April
16-17 with poster sessions in the Staff
Dining Room.
Presented in cooperation with: Merced
College Office of Grants and Institutional
Research; Merced College Institutional
Review Board (IRB); Merced College
Foundation; and the US Dept. of Education: Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI)
STEM grant in collaboration with CSU
Stanislaus.
Contact [email protected] or 3866786 for more information.
CAMPUS DIGEST
FEBRUARY 2015
Time to Order
Your Cap & Gown
Merced College
Office of Business Services
Bookstore
Graduation Ceremony
Cut along dotted line and complete the form.
Takes Place on May 22
By Dr. Everett Lovelace
Dean of Student Services
Dear Colleagues,
Believe it or not, Graduation is just
around the corner!
In order to provide appropriate caps,
gowns, and hoods for participation in
our May 22 commencement exercises,
the Bookstore needs to place our order as
soon as possible. We request that you submit your information as soon as possible.
Details and important deadlines are noted
below.
ALL NEW FACULTY AND ADMINISTRATION MEMBERS should
complete the form provided here and return it to Robyn Piro (Stop 31) in the
Bookstore no later than Friday, Feb. 20.
ALL CONTINUING FACULTY
AND ADMINISTRATION MEMBERS who have earned, or will earn, an
additional degree this year should complete
the form and return it to Robyn Piro (Stop
31) at the Bookstore no later than Friday,
Feb. 20.
ALL
PART-TIME
FACULTY
MEMBERS AND MANAGEMENT
MEMBERS are invited to participate in
the commencement exercises. If you wish
to purchase a cap, gown and hood, please
submit the form to Robyn Piro (Stop 31)
by Friday, Feb. 20, 2015. For questions
regarding pricing, please call Robyn Piro
(#6488).
THE BOOKSTORE WILL NOTIFY YOU WHEN YOUR ITEMS HAVE
ARRIVED. Pick-up hours are MondayFriday, from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Special arrangements for pick-up between 5:45-7:15
p.m. can be made by contacting Robyn Piro
(#6488).
Page 7
Name
Last Name
First Middle Initial
Phone number Last degree earned
Bachelors
Masters
Doctorate
College or University
Name
City and State Major Height
feet
Weight
pounds
inches
CAMPUS DIGEST
Equity
Continued from page 3.
spent considerable time in the discovery
stage—reviewing plans from other colleges, discussing and researching “best
practice” goals and activities, reviewing
state implementation guidelines, and discussing with partners throughout campus
how to best meet the needs of the target
groups.
Plan: Finally, as a culmination activity, the Student Equity Committee has
developed a comprehensive plan with
goals, objectives, and activities that will
meet the needs of the impacted target
populations and work to reduce the
barriers where disproportionate impacts
exist within our resources, services, and
programs.
So, what’s the next step? We need a
highly energetic, innovative, and collaborative leader to begin to fully implement the activities in the plan across all
FEBRUARY 2015
divisions—instruction, student services
and administrative services—essentially
removing the multitude of barriers that
exist for our students.
After much consideration and
thought, as well as paralleling similar
efforts of colleges throughout the state,
we are now recruiting for a new Dean
of Student Equity and Success. This
important new administrative role, fully
supported by categorical funds, will advance the District’s student equity goals
of ensuring equitable educational opportunities and promoting student access
and success for all students, regardless of
race, gender, age, disability, or economic
circumstances.
For more information about this new
role, visit the Merced College Human
Resources jobs posting site at http://
www.mccd.edu/hr/vacancy.htm.
With new efforts, energy, and categorical funds, we have an exciting new
chapter in ensuring access and success
for all students in 2015-2016.
Many Hands
Healing Hearts
Merced College participated in the Merced HEARTh
Project benefitting Merced Rescue Mission’s Room
at the Inn, a safe place for homeless women and
their children. The event was held January 23 in the
lobby of the library. About 45 people participated.
After creating their hearts, the pieces were glazed
and then fired. They joined hundreds of hearts from
throughout the community in a display held at the
Merced Mall February 3-11.
Page 8
Notebook
Continued from page 5.
controls, HVAC units, and irrigation
pumps. If you have any questions regarding these projects, please contact Linda
Mayfield.
Los Banos Booster Pump Project
Bid documents are being compiled to
provide booster pumps at the Los Banos
Campus. The purpose of the project is to
improve the fluctuation of water pressure at
the campus. We anticipate the project will
go out to bid sometime next month. If you
have any questions, please contact Linda
Mayfield.
March Digest Deadline
March 13 is the next deadline to submit news and infomraton for the Campus
Digest.
Send your news to Robin Shepard,
[email protected].